Monday, 13 February 2017

Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Trumpstation.

Seems like just last week that Governor Moonbeam was shouting defiance at President Combover. And now, with an ill-maintained dam suddenly being an urgent problem, he's asking for help.

The generally expected response is a series of sarcastic tweets, as if Brown had asked for a lightly grilled weasel in a bun with French fries.

A more alarming, but entirely plausible, response? Trump could go full populist, bypass all the mandated procedures, and send a construction crew out there to fix the problems on a commercial schedule and for a commercial price. "Here's your budget. Get it done by October, Or Else."

Yeah, it might produce a good outcome, in the one specific case at hand. But that's no way to run a republic.

The government processes for building and maintaining infrastructure are clearly far too slow, cumbersome, and expensive - but the solution should be to fix the processes (perhaps allowing for privatization), not to have a strongman overrule them when the mood takes him.

We shall see. There seems to be no prospect of making the needed repairs, within the system, before the next rainy season, unless the drought returns.